Rick
Nelson was one of the very biggest of the '50s teen idols, so it took
awhile for him to attain the same level of critical respectability as
other early rock greats. Yet now the consensus is that he made some of the
finest pop/rock recordings of his era. Sure, he had more promotional push
than any other rock musician of the '50s; no, he wasn't the greatest
singer; and yes, Elvis, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, and others rocked
harder. But Nelson was extraordinarily consistent during the first five
years of his recording career, crafting pleasant pop-rockabilly hybrids
with ace session players and projecting an archetype of the sensitive,
reticent young adult with his accomplished vocals. He also played a
somewhat underestimated role in rock & roll's absorption into mainstream
America -- how bad could rock be if it was featured on one of America's
favorite family situation comedies on a weekly basis?

Nelson entered professional entertainment before his tenth birthday, when
he appeared with father Ozzie (once a jazz musician), mother Harriet, and
brother David on a radio comedy series based around the family. By the
early '50s, the series was on television, and Ricky grew into a teenager
in public. He was just the right age to have his life turned around by
rock & roll in 1956 and started his recording career almost accidentally
the following year. The story's sometimes been told that he had no
professional singing ambitions until he recorded his debut single to
impress a girlfriend. The single, a cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'"
that went to number four, was helped immensely (as all of his early
singles would be) by plugs on the Ozzie & Harriet TV show.

So far the script was adhering to the Pat Boone teen idol prototype -- a
whitewash of an R&B hit stealing the thunder from the pop audience, sung
by a young, good-looking fella with barely any musical experience to speak
of. What happened next was easy to predict commercially but surprisingly
satisfying musically as well. Nelson was a fairly hip kid who preferred
the rockabilly of Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley to the fodder dished out
for teen idols, and over the next five years he would offer his own brand
of rockabilly music, albeit one with some smooth Hollywood production
touches and occasional pure pop ballads. Nelson recruited
one of the greatest early rock guitarists, James Burton, to supply
authentic licks (another great guitarist, Joe Maphis, played on some early
sides). Some of his best and toughest songs ("Believe What You Say," "It's
Late") were written by Johnny and/or Dorsey Burnette, who had previously
been in one of the best rockabilly combos, the Johnny Burnette Rock 'n
Roll Trio. Ricky could rock pretty hard when he wanted to, as on "Be-Bop
Baby" and "Stood Up," though in a polished fashion that wasn't quite as
wild and threatening as rockabilly's Southern originators.

Nelson really hit his stride, though, with mid-tempo numbers and ballads
that provided a more secure niche for his calm vocals and narrow range.
From 1957 to 1962, he was about the highest-selling singer in the U.S.
except for Elvis, making the Top 40 about 30 times. "Poor Little Fool" and
"Lonesome Town" (1958) were early indications of his ballad style; in the
early '60s, "Travelin' Man," "Young World," "Teen Age Idol," and other
hits pointed to a more countrified, mature style as he honed in on his
21st birthday (by which time he would shorten his billing from "Ricky" to
"Rick"). He could still play rockabilly from time to time, the most
memorable example being "Hello, Mary Lou" (co-written by Gene Pitney),
with its electrifying James Burton solos.

Nelson was lured away from the Imperial label by a mammoth 20-year
contract with Decca in 1963 (which would be terminated prematurely in the
mid-'70s), and for a year or so the hits continued, at a less frenetic
pace. Early-1964's "For You," however, would be his last big smash of the
'60s. The fault wasn't all the Beatles and changing music trends -- on
both singles and albums, much of the material was either substandard pop
or dusty Tin Pan Alley standards, although isolated tracks still generated
some sparks. He wasn't exactly starving, as he continued to appear on
Ozzie and Harriet. But by the mid-'60s even that institution was declining
in popularity, leading to its cancellation in 1966.

Nelson had a strong country feel to much of his material from the
beginning, and by the late '60s it was becoming dominant. He covered
straight country material by the likes of Willie Nelson and Doug Kershaw
and formed one of the earliest country-rock groups, the Stone Canyon Band,
with musicians who had played (or would play) with Poco, Buck Owens,
Little Feat, and Roger McGuinn. A cover of Bob Dylan's "She Belongs to Me"
made the Top 40 in 1970, but his country-rock outings attracted more
critical acclaim than commercial success, until 1972's "Garden Party." A
rare self-composed number, based around the frosty reception granted his
contemporary material at a rock & roll oldies show, it became his last Top
Ten hit.

Nelson would continue to record off and on for the next dozen years and
toured constantly, yet he was unable to capitalize on his assets. A big
part of the problem was that although Nelson wanted to play contemporary
music, he didn't write much of his own material, which was a basic precept
of self-respecting rock acts after the advent of the Beatles. Nor did he
tap into good outside compositions, and there's little of interest on the
albums he recorded over the last decade or so of his life. He died (along
with his fiancée) in a private plane crash on December 31, 1985, on his
way to a New Year's Eve gig in Dallas, at the age of 45.